Sociology Now, Census Update

applying for a job or doing the hiring, regardless of how

often the formal curriculum includes units on diversity.

Inequality and the Structure

of Education

The types of schools and the uneven distribution of

resources for schools result in often dramatic differences

in student achievement.

Private versus Public Schools.Today one in nine American

children (about 6 million) attend private schools (U.S.

Department of Education, 2003). White students are twice

as likely to attend private schools as Black students, and

their numbers are increasing: Only 60 percent of White students were enrolled in public

school in 2001–2002, 7 percentage points less than a decade before (Figure 17.3).

Nearly three-fourths of the 27,000 private schools in the United States are run

by religious bodies. The Roman Catholic Church runs the most (8,000), and inter-

denominational fundamentalist Protestants come in a close second, but there are

also schools affiliated with Presbyterians, Mormons, Lutherans, Orthodox Jews,

and many others. There are usually no restrictions about the religious background

of the students, but religious instruction is required, along with chapel and other

religious services.

Most of the 6,000 secular private schools are prestigious

(expensive), modeled after British boarding schools, with

many advantages in educational quality and school-based

social networks. They draw an elite group of students, and

their graduates go on to equally prestigious and expensive

private universities.

Many people believe that a private school provides bet-

ter education and send their children if they can afford it.

Forty-seven percent of U.S. members of Congress and 51 per-

cent of U.S. senators with school-age children sent them to

private schools. In Florida, nearly 40 percent of lawmakers,

nearly four times the state average, send their school-aged

children to private schools—and when the lawmakers are on

education committees, the percentage rises to 60 percent (St.

Petersburg Times,2005). Even public school teachers believe

that private schools are superior—nationwide, more than one

in five public school teachers choose private schools for their

own children, almost twice the national average (Council for

American Private Education, 2005).

Other than the prestige, what is the attraction of private

education? Advocates argue that smaller class sizes and lower

student–teacher ratios facilitate learning. Discipline is better,

and thus there is a more focused and orderly environment for

learning. And private schools are safer (Chubb and Moe,

1990; Coleman, Hoffer, and Kilgore, 1982; West, 2001).

Wealthy versus Poor School Districts.Parents say they

switch to private schools—or want to—because of the

566 CHAPTER 17EDUCATION

JIn addition to the formal
curriculum in class, students
also participate in a “hidden
curriculum” in which they
learn social lessons about
hierarchy, peer pressure, and
how to act around the oppo-
site sex.

White Hispanic Black Other Race

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

PERCENT

6.0 8.3 5.9 6.3

15.9 5.3 16.9 10.5

15.7

9.4

16.3

12.7

62.3

77.0

60.9

70.5

All

students

Home-

schooled

Public-

schooled

Private-

schooled

TYPE OF SCHOOLING

FIGURE 17.3Race/Ethnicity of Students by
Type of Schooling

Source:Frey, William H., Amy Beth Anspach & John Paul Dewitt, The
Allyn & Bacon Social Atlas of the United States.Published by Allyn &
Bacon, Boston, MA. Copyright ©2008 by Pearson Education. Reprinted by
permission of the publisher.